Interested in full-timing in a truck camper? More and more people are doing it though the reasons for doing it differ greatly from person to person. Some do it to get away and see the world, while others do it simply to save money. Matt and Sarah Breiter do it because they both have a passion for travel and photography. The versatile truck camper, more than any other type of recreational vehicle, allows the young couple to enjoy the great outdoors fully while at the same time staying mobile. But Matt and Sarah, who go by Infinite Explorers on social media, aren’t exactly newbies. They’re already on their third truck camper, an Arctic Fox 1150, and have learned much since they embarked on their adventure in 2020 during the height of the global pandemic. To learn more about their rig and their adventures, the couple was kind enough to answer a few questions.
Tell us a little bit about yourselves? What do you do for a living?
Matt and Sarah: We have both been full-time photographers since 2013. When we met in 2019, we learned we both had a passion to travel around the world. We are only in our mid to late 20s and are so thankful that we found this lifestyle at a young age. Traveling, paired with photography, has taken us to a lot of beautiful places and allowed us to experience many things. Our main business is doing portrait photography such as weddings, families and high school seniors, but we do a little bit of everything. Infinite Explorers was born in 2020 since we decided to make a page dedicated to traveling and feature photographs and cinematic videos from all over.
Which camper do you own and why did you decide to go with that model?
Matt and Sarah: We own a 2022 Northwood Manufacturing Arctic Fox 1150 truck camper. This is our third camper and by far our favorite! We decided to go with this model since we wanted the extra space and more storage compared to our past campers. We also knew Arctic Fox was a high-quality brand that many people speak highly of. The quality of the four-season camper really impressed us!
Do you live full-time in it? If you do, how long have you been doing it?
Matt and Sarah: We live “mostly” full-time in the camper…maybe about 300 days per year? During summer and fall months we visit our families during portrait photography season and stay with them from time to time, but we hope to go truly full time within the next year or two! We purchased our first truck camper in February of 2020 and have been traveling most of the time since March of 2020. We planned to leave in March of 2020 months in advance… so it wasn’t due to COVID-19. It’s been a wild ride since the beginning and we’ve loved it!
How did you find your Arctic Fox 1150 truck camper?
Matt and Sarah: We shopped around the country to see what each dealer had for pricing and settled on a local dealer in Minnesota, which is Niemeyer’s Trailer Sales. They are a great, knowledgeable dealer to work with and made the process excellent for us.
What mods, if any, have you made to your Arctic Fox truck camper?
Matt and Sarah: There were a few modifications we made to our camper since we live in it most of the year. The first thing we did was add extra insulation around the propane tank storage area since a lot of cold air would come into the bathroom from that spot. We also added small rubber mats into the cabinets to prevent things from sliding around. After spending a few weeks inside it we decided to purchase a normal “home” shower curtain instead of using the sliding/retracting shower door that came with it. This way we wouldn’t have to worry about a possible mold issue from water being wrapped up in the door.
What features do you like best about your camper?
Matt and Sarah: There are a lot of great features in our Arctic Fox 1150. It’s very insulated, even though we added extra insulation, that was mainly due to being in very cold areas. The fridge and freezer is also very large. The slide-out makes it so open inside that we could comfortably have six people inside and not all be squished together. There is also a lot of storage and nice finishes. In the end, we are glad to know that it’s a very high quality camper, which was important to us since we didn’t want to have a lot of problems like we did with previous truck campers.
Do you use solar power, a generator, or a DC to DC charger to keep the batteries in your camper charged?
Matt and Sarah: We use 215 watts of solar on the roof to keep it charged. Since we first started camping in 2020 we’ve never used a generator. We plan to add more solar and go lithium in the future as well.
Can you tell us about your truck?
Matt and Sarah: We have a 2020 Ram 3500 Dually. We had debated on getting a dually but are very glad we made that choice. People have told us, “wow, that camper looks top heavy,” but with the dually there is very little sway, even while traveling at highway speeds. The only thing we did was add a Timbren Suspension Enhancement System to the truck, other than that everything is stock.
Are you over or under your truck’s GVWR?
Matt and Sarah: We are just under the truck’s GVWR by about 100 pounds when fully-loaded with everything plus a full fresh water tank.
What kind of mileage are you getting with your setup?
Matt and Sarah: We get about 11.5 mpg with our setup.
What size wheels and tires does your truck have and what inflation values do you typically run? Do you ever air down?
Matt and Sarah: We are running Cooper Discoverer AT3-XLT tires on the front, but still have the factory tires on the back end (which have 32,000 miles on them so far). We typically run all of the tires at 80 psi, but sometimes we air the front down to 70 psi.
Did you need to make any modifications to your truck’s suspension to carry your camper?
Matt and Sarah: The only thing we did was add a Timbren Suspension Enhancement System to the truck. We had Timbren’s on our previous truck as well and were really happy with them.
You’ve been to a lot of cool places in your rig? How do you find them? Word of mouth? Google Earth? Instagram?
Matt and Sarah: Finding cool places is very high on our list, other than meeting fellow campers and hearing their stories. When we started traveling we did about 500 hours to find the coolest off-the-beaten-path places in the USA and were able to make it to most of them. We find a few spots on Instagram as well, but we prefer to adventure to less popular areas. Google Maps is a good asset as well for us since we like to see what else is in areas that we will be in. After all, if you Google, “Sedona, Arizona,” chances are you’ll only see the main highlights of Sedona instead of seeing what else is in the area that can be even cooler. We are avid hikers as well, so sometimes when we can’t make it in our rig, we get most of the way and hike the last little bit, but that’s pretty rare.
Tell us about some of your favorite places you’ve visited so far?
Matt and Sarah: There’s too many places to list, but Utah is our favorite state hands down. There are so many hikes and fun experiences to do there. Reflection Canyon, a 20-mile round trip hike, is pretty neat! The Truck Camper Adventure Rally in Quartzsite was fun to meet a lot of campers. It really depends on what your goal is when traveling. For us, it’s meeting people and photographing epic locations.
Do you have a website and/or social media channels?
Matt and Sarah: A website is currently in the works, but we do have more social media sites to check out our work! A lot of educational videos and cinematic travel videos are on our YouTube channel, but our photography is mainly featured on Facebook and Instagram.
Anything else you’d like to tell us about your setup or lifestyle?
Matt and Sarah: It’s easy to spot our Infinite Explorers rig on the road since we did a custom wrap on the truck camper. If you see us, feel free to stop and say hi! We hope to continue this lifestyle for years to come and get out of country in the near future as well. Life’s short so make it fun and full of memories while you can!
What where the other two campersthey had?